The grants are, however, conditional to results of the European Commission Call for Proposals EACEA/35/08 (deadline was March 13, 2009). We hope to get the decision from Brussels concerning the continuation of the Triple I project in May 2009. In case it is positive, University of Turku will notify the Triple I applicants on the result of the selection in July.

A consortium of 9 European and 10 Russian universities got in 2008 from the European Union four million Euros for the cooperation project Integration, Interaction and Institutions – Triple I. The project aims to enhance cooperation between the partner universities, but some of the grants were reserved for Russian nationals studying at any Russian university, or who have already a Russian degree and may be working outside the academic sphere (so called Target Group 2), and some for applicants belonging to an indigenous population targeted by a specific national policy (= Target Group 3).

In 2008-2009 ca 180 people from Russia received a Triple I grant for a visit to one of the nine partner universities in Europe. Among the grantees were 8 from a UArctic member institution in Russia (two as TG2 grantees and 6 as TG3 grantees).

The application round for new grants (in total 225) for mobilities starting 2009-2010 has been launched, see www.utu.fi/iii/. The grants are, however, conditional to results of the European Commission Call for Proposals EACEA/35/08. Of the grants 37 have been applied for Russian nationals in TG 2 and TG3.
In TG2 and TG3 the amount of the grant is 1000-1800 EUR/per month depending on the level of the applicant (undegraduate / only in TG3 - master - doctorate - post-doctorate). An additional travel subsidy and the travel insurance are also granted. Additional information on required qualifications, the length of the grant periods and host universities is available at www.utu.fi/iii . The application period ends on April 22, 2009 at 2 p.m. (Finnish time).

Triple I offers great grant opportunities to Russian nationals for studies and research in any of the nine Triple I partner European universities. The applicants should read carefully the instructions concerning language requirements, compulsory enclosures etc. All applications within the Triple I mobility scheme must interlink with the theme of the project "Integration, Interaction and Institutions".

Applications from candidates from non-Triple I partner universities in Russia to the nine EU-universities are warmly welcome! Further information about the programmes are available at each EU-partner university.

The Call of Applications and the Triple I Poster are available as pdf.